The maiden governing board for the Cyber Security Authority (CSA) was on Friday inaugurated in Accra with members urged to lend their expertise to the fight against cybercrime to make the country’s digital space secure and resilient.
Chaired by the Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the 11-member board include the Minister of National Security, Albert Kan-Dapaah; Minister of The Interior, Ambrose Dery and Minister of Defence, Dominic Nitiwul.
The others, representing the CSA, the industry forum and the President, are the CSA Director-General, Dr Albert Antwi- Boasiako; Professor Boateng Onwona-Agyeman; Carl Sackey; Adelaide Benneh-Prempeh; Esther Dzifa Ofori; Mavis Vijaya Afakor Amoa and Regional Botchwey.
They were appointed in pursuant to the Cyber Security Act 2020(Act 1038) which set up the CSA to regulate cybersecurity activities in the country; promote its development and provide for related matters.
Sworn in by Justice Afia Serwaa Asare-Botwe, a Justice of the High Court, the board was mandated to provide strategic direction and policies of the Authority, manage and disburse the Cybersecurity Fund and ensure the efficiency of the Authority.
Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said the work of the CSA was critical because Cyber-attacks could derail the country’s gains in digitalisation, undermine its social and economic well-being, as well as national security.
In view of this, Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said within the last five years, the government had taken the country’s cybersecurity development seriously by instituting critical interventions including the passage of the Cybersecurity Act; ratification of the Budapest and Malabo Conventions, the launch of the Safer Digital Ghana campaign and the revision of the National Cybersecurity Policy and Strategy.
She urged the Board to focus on securing sustainable funding for the implementation of Act 1038 and other interventions and take urgent steps to operationalise Section 29 of the Cybersecurity Act, 2020.
She said within the last half-decade, Ghana had chalked some success in the sector as the country ranked 3rd on the African continent and 43rdglobally in the latest Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
While urging the CSA to ensure the country moved further up the rank, Mrs Owusu-Ekuful charged the authority to focus on the implementation of the relevant regulatory measures, including the protection of Ghana’s Critical Information Infrastructure, as well as work closely with the yet-to-be-inaugurated Joint Cybersecurity Committee and other stakeholders to develop the sector.
She said there was the need to train the necessary human resources to manage our own digital and cyber security infrastructure and possibly export the same to other parts of the continent.
“Currently Ghana is being used as the focal point for the European Commission on training in cybercrime prevention in the sub-region. ECOWAS has also charged us to be a champion for cybersecurity in the region. The World Bank is looking at us to share our experiences in this area with our colleagues on the continent”, she said.
The CSA commenced operations on October 1, last year. It started as the National Cyber Security Secretariat with the appointment of the National Cybersecurity Advisor in 2017,and later transitioned into the National Cyber Security Centre in 2018 as an agency under the then Communications Ministry.
BY JONATHAN DONKOR
